Sunday Funnies

Sunday afternoon was filled with interesting things and it took me most of the evening to stop laughing. To start I learned a phrase called "crop-dusting". We were walking through Lowes and we passed a couple. One of them had the worst gas. We walked right through the cloud of smell. Phil says I hate running into crop dusters. The worst part was we forgot something and had to go back the couples way. Phil looks at me and says Are you really going to make me walk through that funk again. I feel sorry for which ever member of that couple that was not crop dusting.

So then we are at home an hour or so later, I usually spend most of Sunday afternoon doing laundry so I am up and down the stairs more times that I care to know. I was upstairs putting clothes away and left the laundry baskets in the hall as I emptied them. This was logical to me so that when I went back down stairs to get more laundry I could grab them. That was until I heard, "HOLD ON TIGHT!!!". I went runnung to the hall, Phil is yelling "NO" from the bedroom. I found Jack in the laundry basket gripping the sides waiting for Katie to give him a big shove. All I can say is that I will NEVER leave the laundry baskets in the hall EVER again.

An hour or so later I am walking up the stairs and I hear, "Peanut what the ......(gasp for air)." Phil was changing Maddie's diaper and was not prepared for what he found inside. I had to take that diaper straight outside. Do not pass go do not collect $100.

There are a lot of times when Katie and Jack are playing I stand off in the distance and just listen. Sometimes I hear them scolding each other with the comments Phil and I make to them. Other times it is really funny little conversations.

Needless to say, being a fly an the wall at my house yesterday would have probably left you laughing. I am just glad that the five days of rain has ended and I will be able to let them go outside and play instead of being so creative inside.

TTFN

I'm Special......

Sunday before breakfast Katie and Jack were playing in Katie's room. The mess was so ginormous that after breakfast I had to go moderate clean up. When we were finished Katie and I were taking all of her dirty laundry out of her closet. I found some clothes that were supposed to be buried in the back, on the floor. These were special items either of clothes that I wore as a child or clothes Katie wore as a baby.

Only a handful of people will recognize the dress in the picture. However it was a dress that I wore as a child one of the times my father set up studio in our home and took family photos. So the rest of the Sunday morning story goes like this. As I was hanging up the clothes that Katie should not have been playing with. She asked me if she could wear the dress. I told her it probably did not fit here and that it was a very special dress. As I was about to tell her that it was a dress I wore when I was little like her she interrupted me and said, "But Mommy, I'm Special."

There was nothing more I could say except go get my camera, help her put the 30 something year old dress on and let her smile for the camera. As she was smiling for me she stopped me and asked if she could wear her tiara. As in Katie's own style she had to add her own flare. Enjoy!!!

TTFN

Making the Cut.....

In September of 2005, one of my very good friends and Kaitlynn's god-mother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. She has had a masectomy and has been cancer free for some time. Most of you that know me, are aware that I grow and donate my hair for wigs. Over the next couple of weeks (I have to decide when) I will be donating another 10 inches (if not more of my hair).

This will be my third donation in ten years. I will have donated almost 36 inches, yes 3 feet of my hair. In the past two donations I have sent it to Locks of Love because it was specifically for children. This time I found the Pantene Beautiful Lengths Campaign about a year ago. I promised that this donation would be in honor of my friend and her journey.

I walked most of this path with her and there were many times I left her home crying, praying she would find the strenth to fight. I know there were days she wanted to quit. Since she is now cancer free. My donation is in her honor. I have attached photos from first donation. When I complete my third donation I will add those photos too.

TTFN

Friday's During Lent

Friday's during Lent is a day of fasting and not eating meat. With that being said on Friday night's during Lent the kids get scrambled eggs, toast and fruit for dinner. They don't usually complain but it is not Katie's favorite. So here I am feeding Katie her eggs because she really did not want them, Jack is finishing his toast (he loves eggs his are already gone) and Maddie was getting fussy.

I asked Jack to give Maddie her binkie, she was getting fussy. All of the sudden I hear, "Mommy Maddie took my toast." I couldn't stop laughing

In trying to get Maddie to want to eat her baby food we have been sitting Maddie at the table in a booster seat. We give her biter bisquets or toast with, lots of butter. She loves it. I noticed lately she has been trying to communicate what food she wants. Because Phil was working late we did dinner picnic style on the living room floor.

Maddie recognized the toast and wanted that instead of the binkie. Needless to say I had to go make her her own toast.

Hope everyone has a good weekend. It will be cold and rainy here.

Happy Friday!!!

TTFN
(for those of you who don't know what this means, "TA TA For Now")

Pilbert's Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PILBERT!!!!!!

Hugs and Kisses,
Chelsea, Katie, Jack and Maddie


GO IRISH!!!!

last week saga continues

As I was grateful that Wednesday was uneventful Thursday made up for it. I spent the entire day running errands and helping a friend have everything ready for her husband's business taxes, I barely had time to breathe. However, the first Thursday of every other month we have a meeting with other Cardiac Kids Parents (see link down the side). We are members of the Levine Cardiac Kids founded in April of 2007. These are the parents like us who have one or more child(ren) with some type of Congenital Heart Defect (CHD) and siblings who are normal (whatever that is).

When we were in the hospital after Maddie's surgery we were given a bag of goodies of all sorts of things. Most of it were things you might forget if you had an experience like ours (toothbrush, toothpaste, playing cards, puzzle book). They had a monthly meeting while Maddie was in the hospital so we went. The meeting was very informative and I was very glad some of the parents were smart enough to get together to help new families like us.

Because they are aware of families with siblings, they also let the siblings do something fun while the families are meeting. So we decided to bring Katie and Jack. After the Pizza dinner social Katie and Jack were taken to the 8th floor play area by the CHILD LIFE Group so Phil and I could enjoy the meeting.

This month one of the Doctors from the Sanger Clinic spoke about all the advances that have been developed for the many different CHD. Some things were truly amazing. The showed how some new procedures are done some of which was really unbelievable. However, Phil and I learned how truly blessed we were. We were the only parents in the room with a child with a coartation of the aorta. The reason why......because all the other children had much worse CHD.

Children born with half a heart, hearts that the valves were messed up as to where the blood is to pump to, severe holes where the blood is leaking into the wrong area. Some of these children had to have heart transplants at less than one year of age. I could not possibly imagine having to go through more that one surgery with Madelynn. The first and hopefully only one was a road I never wish to travel again.

For Madelynn there is the small chance that the repaired area will shrink and she will have to go through an outpatient OFFICE procedure to balloon it back open. Yes they do it as an office visit. That part kills me every time I hear it. As of Madelynn's last echo in January her heart looks so good unless you knew what you were looking for you would never know her heart was repaired. Her scar has almost disappeared. It truly is amazing.

When the meeting was over I literally wanted to run home and see Madelynn. We had to pick her up at Grandma Bacho's house. I just needed to see her smile. I was grateful and relieved at where she was in her recovery. I met a couple who was pregnant with their 1st child, a little boy, who was going to be born with a CHD. They have a general idea but won't know the true severity of it till he is born (sometime in the end of June, beginning of July). There was also a young boy who lost his battle with his heart condition last week.

I hear from people all the time. I can't even imagine what it has been like for you. I don't think about it that way. What we went through was nothing compared to some of the others. I don't know what I would had done if I knew Madelynn's condition before she was born. I heard in another meeting that Parents of CHD children are chosen. That Phil and I were chosen to be Madelynn's parents. I don't know why but that word CHOSEN stopped me dead in my tracks.

Then I heard of a mother who took photos of children in the hospital, premature babies, very sick babies. She took these incredible photos for families because for some that would be all they had because the child only lived a few hours or days. One of the parents Thanked her and told her this was what God created you to do.

Some days I wonder If I am doing what God created me to do. I feel like some days caring for Madelynn in her recovery is not enough. I feel like I have walked this road with her for a purpose and I am missing the reason why. So needless to say I have truly been searching for the reason. Although Madelynn is doing very well in all aspects of her recovery, the journey is not over. I am supposed to take what I learned and do something with it. I am not sure what though.

As a quick side note Madelynn went for her weight check this week and gained another 10 oz. I was stunned and very excited. This makes her 13 lbs and 10.5 oz. She still has a long way to go because she still can not be plotted on the chart for her weight yet. She is a fighter and working very hard in her therapy too.

TTFN